A New Front In The War On Obamacare: Twitter

Few things likely please the Obama White House as a political battle fought on social media. Above, President Obama participates in a "Twitter Town Hall" in 2011.

Charles DharapakAP

Originally published on May 16, 2013 5:48 pm

A simple idea: attack Obamacare tersely.

On the same day House Republicans scheduled their latest symbolic vote to repeal Obamacare, as part of their full-court press against the law they also took to Twitter to say, in three words, why they oppose the legislation.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor attacked with a fusillade of his own tweets:

"Run by IRS," "21 Tax Hikes" and "2000 IRS Agents" were a few that surfed on the wave of public outrage at the Internal Revenue Service for allowing some employees to target for greater scrutiny conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

But while the White House may have had a tough time figuring out quick and effective responses to GOP hits on Benghazi and the IRS, a war fought in the succinct world of social media is one fought on a battleground the Obama White House knows as well as anyone in Washington.

So it went between partisans much of Thursday. "No gender discrimination," tweeted Stephanie Cutter, an official at Organizing for Action, the reincarnation of the Obama 2012 presidential campaign apparatus. "IRS in control" tweeted Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.